Things you didn't know about Soul Train

It is with love, grief and soul that I present to you the top five things you probably did not know about Soul Train. 

Number 5. Don Cornelius: kicked off Soul Train in Chicago on August 17, 1970, coincidentally my 11th birthday. And the first big sponsor was Johnson products, the folks who brought you Afro Sheen. 

Number 4. I'm told that later there was not one but three separate soul train lines. Through the magic of editing, they could always show you someone doing something cool.

Number 3. A lot of folks were on poping and locking on soul train before they became household names. Fred Berry would later be much better known as Rerun and then there was this Hammer guy.

Number 2: Soul train may have started off as a black show but soon..everyone wanted to ride on the hippest trip in America. First white artist on the show,  Guitar man Dennis Coffey, the second was Elton John.

And the number one thing you didn't know about Soul Train. While most guest performers lip-synched their songs, in 1972 James Brown sang this"Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud, "  live and in living color.

You didn't have to be black to sing along with James Brown or dance along with Soul Train. Don Cornelius was an icon who created an American institution, and that we already knew.